Chapter 95: 093: Compliant Subjects? Or Riotous Rebels? (For the Alliance Leader

Now, Jiang Dashan had presented his pledge of allegiance and was boarding the boat with two tenant farmers.

It was a ferry boat; the boatman, sensing trouble, had long since vanished without a trace.

One tenant farmer rowed while the other poled, and the ferry sped toward the opposite bank.

Jiang Dashan gripped his iron spade, leaping off before the boat had steadied, just as four stonemasons came carrying a slab of stone.

"Dashan, what are you doing here?" one of the stonemasons asked.

Jiang Dashan grinned. "Here on business."

As he spoke, the other two tenant farmers also disembarked, each clutching a carrying pole.

The seven of them headed together for the quarry. The foreman lay dozing at the edge of the site, leaving a few overseers to watch the work.

"Master Huang sent me to pass on a message."

Jiang Dashan spoke as he walked forward. The foreman remained lying down, and the overseers stayed where they were.

A blade of dog-tail grass dangling from his lips, the foreman asked, "Pass on what message?"

Jiang Dashan was extremely nervous, his palms soaked with sweat, the smile on his face stiffening. He walked up to the foreman, suddenly swung the iron spade down, and at the same time bellowed, "Uncle Yao, strike!"

Huang Yao was prying a slab loose with an iron crowbar when he saw Jiang Dashan bring the spade crashing down, splitting the foreman's head wide open.

Everyone was stunned stupid — stonemasons and overseers alike stood frozen, unreacting.

The scene was too explosive: red and white burst out, both gory and sickening.

"Master Huang has been beaten to death!" Jiang Dashan shouted again.

With the foreman dead, only four overseers remained at the quarry, while there were a full dozen or more stonemasons.

Now that a man was dead and no one knew what was happening, and with the cry that Master Huang had been beaten to death, the four overseers instinctively backed away, all their usual arrogance and bluster gone.

Jiang Dashan shouted again: "Uncle Yao, have you forgotten how your eldest sister died? Master Huang is already beaten dead — you still don't dare strike?"

"Kill!"

Huang Yao's face suddenly twisted with ferocity. Using his crowbar as an iron spear, he charged straight at the nearest overseer.

That overseer was scared out of his wits, turned to flee, but was tripped by a stonemason beside him sticking out a foot.

This stonemason was none other than Huang Shun. He swung his sledgehammer down, smashing hard into the overseer's back. The overseer instantly vomited blood. Huang Yao rushed over too, his crowbar plunging down savagely, stabbing a bloody hole through the overseer's waist.

Jiang Dashan, with the two tenant farmers, chased after the other three overseers.

The three overseers fled as if their feet were greased. One was chased to the riverbank, jumped into the river, and drifted downstream. The other two escaped into the hills, and Jiang Dashan did not pursue them further.

"Cross the river!" Jiang Dashan said.

Huang Yao, dragging his crowbar, said, "Let's go!"

Huang Shun threw aside his sledgehammer, picked up a crowbar as well, and said to the other stonemasons, "Over on the other side they've already beaten Master Huang to death, and you're still here chipping at rocks?"

The dozen or so stonemasons stood frozen in place. They very much wanted to cross the river and see, but fear kept them from moving.

"We're off!" Huang Yao jumped onto the boat.

Jiang Dashan had been ordered to cross the river and bring people back, but he had only brought two. He felt he had not handled the matter well.

Just as they were about to cast off, a stonemason suddenly said, "Let's go take a look."

"Right, let's go take a look," the other stonemasons echoed.

It really was just to go take a look. Only if there was advantage to be had and no danger would they join in and fight a tailwind battle.

Seeing everyone board, Jiang Dashan gave the order to cast off and said to the stonemasons, "Master Huang cheated everyone out of their wages and even tried to swallow Master Zhao's one thousand taels of silver. Master Zhao joined forces with the village tenant farmers and beat Master Huang to death on the spot. Master Zhao also said that the Governor is his kinsman. He means to stay in Huang Family Town for good — all of Master Huang's lands and property will be his from now on. As long as we follow him, he's willing to divide the land among us."

Huang Shun asked, "This Master Zhao isn't lying to us, is he? Is he really willing to divide the land?"

Jiang Dashan laughed. "One thousand taels of silver — how much land would that buy? Master Zhao doesn't even care about a thousand taels of silver. Would he cheat you out of your few mu of land?"

"Then let's do it!" Huang Shun said through gritted teeth. "I've been wanting to strike for ages!"

Huang Yao had remained silent the whole time, only gazing into the distance at the opposite bank, lost in who knows what thoughts.

The ferry reached the shore. Jiang Dashan was the first to leap off. "Master Zhao, I've brought the men back."

Before Zhao Han could speak, the Huang brothers came charging over with their household slaves.

Not many household slaves had come this time — only forty-odd. The servants of the other two families had not been mobilized.

Huang Yao tossed aside his crowbar, walked silently to the rocky shoal, picked up a carrying pole, and gripped it in his hand — the crowbar was too heavy and clumsy; the carrying pole was easier to wield.

"Where's my father?"

Huang Shuncheng shouted from far off: "Father, are you all right? Father..."

"Your father's dead. Your grandfather's right here," Zhao Han answered with a smile.

"Father!"

The Huang brothers finally saw their father's corpse. Instantly blazing with fury, they led their household slaves charging onto the shoal.

Most of the tenant farmers had retreated far away. Even the tenant farmers who had presented pledges of allegiance were so terrified by the forty-odd household slaves that they kept backing off.

Zhang Tieniu came charging from the other side, hefting his battle-axe and bellowing, "Your Tieniu is here!"

"Young master, catch the spear!"

Chen Maosheng had carried over Zhao Han's long spear and now hurled it with all his might.

The long spear traced a parabola through the air and landed with elegant form — a full two zhang away from Zhao Han.

Zhao Han forcibly suppressed the urge to gripe, ran over and picked up the long spear, and threw the saber in his hand back to Chen Maosheng.

With the saber swapped for the long spear, Zhao Han's combat strength instantly doubled. Like a tiger among sheep, he began his charge.

He now understood completely: no amount of incitement, no amount of goading, was as good as killing a few. He was an outsider; no matter how much silver he had, he was just a fat mark, just a kindly master. He had to display martial force before these tenant farmers.

Before the household slaves could even close in, Zhao Han had skewered one, and in the blink of an eye, another.

After he had stabbed three men dead in succession, the remaining household slaves all skirted around Zhao Han as they ran, not daring to face him head-on at all.

Zhang Tieniu charged into the household slaves' flank, swinging his axe with both hands in relentless hacking. He took several staff blows from the household slaves but paid them no mind whatsoever, simply barreling forward and cutting men down.

This fellow had never trained in martial arts; his moves were utterly without form or method. He was simply cutting men down by sheer courage and ferocity.

They didn't need any help at all — just the two of them, in a single clash, routed more than forty household slaves and sent them fleeing in collapse.

The brothers Huang Shuncheng and Huang Shunzhang no longer thought of avenging their father; they threw down their clubs, turned, and ran. They were neither constables of Yanshan County nor customs-post soldiers of bandit origin. Usually, at worst, they threw their weight around bullying tenant farmers — when had they ever faced fighting this fierce?

"Kill!"

Only at this moment did Chen Maosheng finally snatch up a saber, raise it high above his head, and charge out with his guard wide open.

Pang Chunlai stood far off, one hand pressing on his iron sword, stroking his beard, a faint smile on his face.

At this distance, he could barely make anything out — only clusters of shadows shifting back and forth.

"Kill the Huangs, divide the land!" Jiang Dashan raised his iron spade to rally them.

Huang Yao and Huang Shun were already charging, each swinging a carrying pole, chasing the fleeing household slaves and striking at them.

"Divide the land, divide the land!"

The tenant farmers who had already pledged their loyalty with a blood price finally dared to act.

The rest of the tenant farmers kept far away, but when they saw the Huang brothers and the household slaves fleeing in rout, someone suddenly could hold back no longer — he picked up a rock and began smashing at Master Huang's corpse.

"You stole my field, you harmed my mother — I'll beat you to death, I'll beat you to death!"

The tenant farmer clutched the rock and smashed without stopping, shouting as he smashed, weeping as he shouted. Master Huang's head soon became a bloody, mangled mess.

At that moment, another tenant farmer charged out, carrying pole raised high, howling madly: "Divide the fields, divide the fields!"

More and more tenant farmers began to move, their faces twisted and terrifying, wholly plunged into a state of frenzy.

One man caught up with a household slave, and at once several others joined in, flailing wildly with every kind of tool. Even after beating the household slave to death, they still would not stop. The fields were littered everywhere with corpses in every manner of violent death.

"To the Huang family ancestral home!"

Someone shouted — no one knew who — and all the tenant farmers jolted awake, then surged toward the Huang residence in an even wilder state.

Huang Yao had a pair of long legs and ran even faster than Zhao Han. The fellow soon overtook Zhang Tieniu and, carrying pole in hand, rushed to the very front, launching a flying kick that sent Huang Shunzhang sprawling.

Huang Shunzhang struggled to his feet and took a carrying pole blow straight to the face.

Huang Shuncheng, however, missed his footing on his own and tumbled clumsily into a paddy field. Zhang Tieniu leaped down from the ridge, swung his axe through the air, and the blade embedded itself directly in Huang Shuncheng's skull.

Zhao Han caught up and stabbed Huang Shunzhang dead with one thrust of his spear.

Countless tenant farmers and stonemasons took shortcuts, racing to kill at the Huang family ancestral home.

Where the main gate could not be entered, they climbed the walls and broke in.

They stormed into the house, struck at anyone they saw, snatched anything they laid eyes on.

"Don't hit her — that's my daughter!"

"My brother hauls firewood for the Huangs, he's only thirteen, he's never done any evil!"

"..."

The Huang family servants left in the house were either maids and old serving women or underage pageboys. Yet these tenant farmers vented their fury on them too. Many innocent servants were beaten until their heads split and blood flowed — some were even beaten to death on the spot.

Soon someone burst into the inner courtyard. Huang Zundao's principal wife, in her fifties, had time only for a single shriek before the tenant farmers struck her down, then surrounded her and beat her to death.

By the time Zhao Han arrived, Huang Zundao's four grandsons and two granddaughters had all been beaten to death — the eldest among them only fourteen.

"Stop, stop at once!"

Zhao Han shouted himself hoarse, but he could not suppress them at all.

These tenant farmers knew only how to be docile subjects or how to be a raging mob — they could grasp no middle ground.

At this very moment, Zhao Han truly wished he could go to Ruijin and seek guidance from those three field-soldier leaders. How had they managed to restrain the peasants, keep the officials and landlords in check, and achieve such a strange and wondrous harmony?

"I said stop, damn you!"

Zhao Han reversed his spear and smashed a tenant farmer to the ground, then seized him by the collar and said: "Stop!"

This tenant farmer, just moments before, had been savagely beating a child — probably the son of some household slave.

The child was already barely breathing; it was clear he would not live.

In the heart of every docile subject lurks a wild beast, and Zhao Han had just unleashed over a hundred wild beasts all at once.

This was a double-edged sword — wield it poorly, and it would cut the wielder.

Zhao Han planted his spear and leaped onto a stone vat in the courtyard, steadied himself on the rim, and shouted: "Is there anyone still in his right mind? Get to my side, quickly!"

He shouted it over and over several times. Huang Yao was the first to come running, followed by Zhang Tieniu, Jiang Dashan, and Chen Maosheng.

Zhang Tieniu said in horror: "They've all gone fucking mad — killing even children of a few years old. I tried to pull them off and couldn't hold them back."

"Master Zhao, someone was trying to start a fire — I drove him off." Huang Shun suddenly came running over as well.

"No more killing, and absolutely no setting fires," Zhao Han ordered. "Each of you, go find the ones you know. Tell them to stop at once, or I won't divide any land. Go, quickly — remember, remember, watch out for anyone trying to set a fire!"

At some unnoticed moment, Xiaocui and Xiaohong had come into the courtyard, supporting Pang Chunlai between them.

Pang Chunlai was covered in mud from head to toe — his eyesight being poor, he had probably tumbled into a paddy field on the way.

Though wrapped in mud, Pang Chunlai still maintained his poise. He said slowly: "Brother Han, a mob of rioters can never accomplish anything. However fierce they are now, that's how terrified they'll be when they face government troops."

"I know," Zhao Han said helplessly.

If not for the need to quickly establish a base, why would he ever have chosen such a crude and low tactic?

(End of chapter)